Defenses for Spring 2021

Understanding the Role of Ocean Dynamics in Climate Variability

June 02, 2021

Casey Patrizio

The ocean plays a key role in regulating Earth's mean climate because of its massive heat capacity, but also its heat transport by slow-moving circulations and other dynamics. In principle, fluctuations in such ocean heat transport can influence the variability in the climate, by impacting the sea-surface temperature (SST) variability and in turn the atmospheric variability through surface heat…

Organic Aerosol Modeling of Wildfires

April 13, 2021

Ali Akherati

Atmospheric aerosols impact climate, air quality, human health, and visibility. Organic aerosols (OA) account for a large fraction of the submicron atmospheric aerosol mass globally, and biomass burning (BB) is the largest contributor to atmospheric OA. BBOA is poorly understood due to uncertainties in the physical and chemical processes that drive its emissions, production, and evolution in…

MINERAL DUST LOFTING AND INTERACTIONS WITH COLD POOLS

January 29, 2021

Jennie Bukowski

Convective dust storms, or haboobs, form when strong surface winds loft loose soils in convective storm outflow boundaries. Haboobs are a public safety hazard and can cause a near instantaneous loss of visibility, inimical air quality, and contribute significantly to regional dust and radiation budgets. Nevertheless, reliable predictions of convective dust events are inhibited by a lack of…